Asking For Allaah’s Mercy For Those who Fell into Innovations Connected to Aqidah | 3 | Practising Youth Falling into Innovations Themselves Without Even Realising, Slow Down

by The Albaani Blog

For this reason I say that one of the onerous mistakes of today is that the practising youth, the ones who think that they are clinging to the Book and the Sunnah, [actually] oppose the Book and the Sunnah without even realising it. And as a result, I have the right to, based upon their madhhab, call them innovators, because they have opposed the Book and the Sunnah–but I will not go against my madhhab [and call them innovators when the proof has not been established against them].

The foundation concerning these people [i.e., the youth mentioned above] is that they are Muslims and that they didn’t intend to commit any innovations and that they do not haughtily reject the truth and nor do they reject the evidence and proof. For this reason we say they wanted what was correct but made a mistake.

When we come to realise this reality we will be saved from a lot of the difficult issues of this time. One of them is the Jamaa’ah Al-Takfeer wal-Hijrah which used to be in Egypt and which had spread some of its ideology to Syria when I used to be there, then it reached here too.

We used to have some brothers on the Salafi methodology, the Book and the Sunnah, who were influenced by their false claims and who [as a result] stopped praying in congregation in the mosque, in fact, they stopped praying Jumu’ah [in the mosque] too. They would pray in their areas and houses, until the time we sat with them.

We held three sittings. The first was between maghrib and ishaa, [after this meeting] they refrained from praying behind us, i.e., from praying behind us Salafis, and I don’t want to just say myself … they used to say, ‘We rely on your books,’ but they still wouldn’t pray behind me, why? Because they [i.e., the Salafis] do not call those Muslims who they call disbelievers, to be disbelievers. So this was the first sitting.

The second was in their own house and it continued to midnight, but the glad tidings of their responding to the true call started to show, walhamdulillaah, such that we made the call to prayer and stood to pray and we prayed there just before midnight and they prayed behind us. This was the second sitting.

As for the third, then it continued from after ishaa prayer up until the adhaan of fajr, one [continual] sitting. And it was, alhamdulillaah, the death knell [of their false ideology]–to this day they are with us, and about twelve years have passed since this event, walhamdulillaah.

So they were only doubts that came over them due to their lack of understanding of the Book and the Sunnah. And maybe you know, O brother Khaalid, that understanding the Book and the Sunnah is not something easy [to achieve] today after we have inherited numerous madhhabs and [split into] very many groups in [issues] of creed [aqidah] and in Islamic jurisprudence [fiqh].

So the beginner student of knowledge cannot dive into this ocean of differences except after a very long, prolonged time of study in what today is called comparative fiqh [fiqh al-muqaarin] and a study of the proofs of the differing sides in usool and furoo, and in reality, [like I said] this, firstly, requires a long lifetime, and the tawfiq of the Lord of the Worlds, secondly, until Allaah will make true the Muslim’s supplication which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم made it a sunnah for him to say, which he would say as part of the supplications uttered during the night prayer, ‘O Allaah! Guide me concerning that which they differed in over the truth with Your Permission! Indeed, You guide whoever You want to [guide] to the Straight Path.’

For this reason, I advise our youth of today being brought up on the Book and the Sunnah to slow down and to be more reflective/patient and not to issue rulings which they base upon what is [just] apparent from the texts, because it is not for a Muslim to go by every [seemingly] apparent thing, for if not then in terms of knowledge he will live a life of chaos which has no end.

I think you know that the closest of the madhhabs to the Book and the Sunnah is the Ahlul-Hadith, and you also know that the Ahlul-Hadith relied on the narrating of the innovators if they were trustworthy, truthful and great memorisers. The meaning of this is that they did not include them amongst the disbelievers and neither did they include them amongst those for whom mercy is not sought.

Rather, you know that some of the Imaams who are followed today and whose being a Muslim no true Muslim scholar doubts, and not only [do they not doubt that those Imaams are Muslims] but [in fact they affirm that] they are scholars of excellence, yet along with that [these Imaams who are followed] may oppose the Book and the Sunnah and the Salaf as-Saalih in more than one issue.

By that I mean, for example, An-Nu’maan ibn Thaabit, Abu Hanifah, may Allaah have mercy on him, who used to say that eemaan does not increase or decrease and who used to say that it is not allowed for a Muslim to say, ‘I am a believer, ‘inshaa Allaah,’’ and that whoever does say, ‘inshaa Allaah’ [in that phrase] then he is not a Muslim. There is no doubt that this saying [of Imaam Abu Hanifah, may Allaah have mercy on him] is an innovation in the religion, because it opposes the Book and the Sunnah, but he didn’t intend to commit an innovation, he wanted the truth but made a mistake.

For this reason, opening this door of doubting the scholars of the Muslims whether they be from the Salaf or those who came later [khalaf] is an opposition to what the Muslims are upon. And our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic says in the Noble Quraan, “And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers–We will give him what he has taken and drive him into Hell, and evil it is as a destination.”Nisaa 4:115

2 Comments to “Asking For Allaah’s Mercy For Those who Fell into Innovations Connected to Aqidah | 3 | Practising Youth Falling into Innovations Themselves Without Even Realising, Slow Down”

As salaamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, is it possible for you to put the dua: ‘O Allaah! Guide me concerning that which they differed in over the truth with Your Permission! Indeed, You guide whoever You want to [guide] to the Straight Path.’
up in arabic please.
jazakAllah khayr

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